Sunday 17 June 2012

WE LIVE BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT

The whole point of Christianity being based on faith is so that we wouldn't have a love of Jesus based on sight, but based upon the fire of the Spirit's workings in our hearts and minds. To set up our Churches as places designed to enthral and entertain the senses of sight and sensation therefore, works against how our Lord and Saviour has designed not only how we are to know and love Him, but also how meetings of His Church family are to learn of and worship Him. 


If anything, the New Testament serves as a testimony to us to guard against being enraptured by the senses. Jesus turned His disciples' eyes away from the glittering temple building, He gave John the Baptist as a contrast to 'those that live in luxury' and live in palaces. In the disciples Jesus gave an example of how great the power of God was in the weakness of their own strength, and in the meagreness and often strangeness and poverty of their appearance. 


The books of the New Testament are devoted to the careful instruction about our hearts, minds and lives, and little to no evidence is found to justify OVERLY important emphasis on buildings for the sake of culture or anything else. One upper-room was enough for the Holy Spirit to descend in power when Pentecost came, and a stable was enough for our Lord and Saviour, the King of Kings to be born in. A cave was enough for God to give John the Baptist one of the greatest revelations in all of Church and Biblical history, and a tomb was enough for our Lord and Saviour to rise from and ascend to heaven, as were a few disciples enough of a crowd for Jesus to depart this earth with. A field was enough of a place for Jesus to break bread in and give thanks to the Father before feeding the people, and meeting from 'house to house' was enough for the early Christians to continue '...in the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.' 


There will always be obvious needs and basic requirements that the Church in the West may need, and the above doesn't discount those things. Such things in moderation are fine. But when we emphasise a Church of grandiose designs, flashy set-ups, and entertaining places of worship, we have completely missed the heart and the point of the grace and glory of Jesus. No matter what we call it, it won't be of Him.

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